“They preferred the Englishman over the Albanians” The chairman of the parliamentary committee on culture, Limoz Dizdari, denounces the government’s decision to establish the Butrint office. Under this decision, the ancient city is to be placed under the management of the English lord Rothshild. “It is an extremely hasty and dubious action,” Dizdari comments. According to him, all the specialists from the archaeological institute and the monuments institute have spoken out against it. Indeed, they informed Nano of their institutions’ decisions only one day before he voted for the Englishman in Corfu. Butrint has three civilizations: Illyrian, Roman and Hellenic. The institute’s director asked Nano for details of this agreement, but received no answer. On page 2

CONTROVERSY / Fatos Lubonja also responds The publicist Dritëro Agolli once again attacks the Minister of Culture, Edi Rama, and the newly appointed Director of Television, Ardian Klosi. He spoke harshly about both at a meeting of the Socialist Party’s KLD, citing as an example a pamphlet he had written: “Albania, I’ve shat on you.” People like that, Dritëro said, cannot run important cultural institutions. The day after the conference, Minister Rama, publicist Fatos Lubonja and composer Limoz Dizdari respond. After making his accusations, Agolli explains why he is against Rama and Klosi. On page 2

Hajdaraga’s Ministry: No officials involved Police: We had been monitoring the suspicious military personnel for a month Clash between ministries over trafficking. Budlia and Kuka released in Gramsh Anti-smuggling experts are investigating arms trafficking. According to police chiefs, information received from Gramsh has raised suspicions that military personnel from the Ministry of Defence are involved in an arms-trafficking operation. Accordingly, several experts from the Ministry of Public Order had been stationed in the small town for more than a month, waiting for the arrival of military vehicles, one of which was to be loaded with around 70 Kalashnikovs. According to operational information, the smugglers were to be accompanied in this “operation” by certain soldiers, who would secure the journey to the north of the country. To await the announced “guests,” local police are said to have set up blue-uniformed patrols a week earlier, which would check the entire route. But an incident involving vehicles belonging to the Ministry of Defence caused the entire operation, prepared long in advance, to fail. On page 4 [Text column cut off at the top] ... around 70 Kalashnikovs. Counter- ... to testify. ... From Kosovo ... radio and television broadcasts provide heartrending accounts of crimes committed against Albanians by Serbian special forces. “A force ... broadcasts footage of a ... by Serbian police forces of the mass executions of Albanians in two villages in Deçan, Drenoc and Voksh. The report, known as “Black Caps” (those reports selected in Bosnia to kill and drive Bosniaks and Croats out of the villages), groups Albanians into groups of 15 and mows them down with automatic gunfire. Immediately afterwards, bulldozers cover them in the forest. Two residents of Orahovac, the “Washington Post” writes, testified that they had both seen the execution of seven Albanians by Serbian militia. The same newspaper writes that members of an international monitoring team were told that in Orahovac the Serbian militia had tied ten people in the middle of the road as a human shield against the Albanians. The inability of easy freedom ... [unclear passages] ... at a time when ... the Albanian issue ... Germany ... Unfortunately, all this pessimism is not without foundation when one considers how much has been invested ...

Napolon Roshi Years ago, a distinguished Austrian journalist, just after getting off the plane from Belgrade at Rinas, gave me some advice: “When I saw a Serb of the first class at that airport, I learned that I was travelling in Albania,” she told me, “I thought that if I had a minute, I would hang all the Albanians. This is not simply the opinion of one Serb. At least 70% of them think this way. Therefore, the number…” … To tell the truth, a journalist who was called to Belgrade by more than one Albanian, for what was then the most anti-Albanian voice heard today in Kosovo. In relation to Albania and the Albanians, Serbian leaders’ policy has fostered lies, oppression and savagery. Every effort has been made so that the Serb, for years on end, would see the Albanian as his enemy. Without wishing to delve deeply into the history of Tsar Dušan, the “Battle of Kosovo” or “Old and sacred Serbia,” we come to the beginning of this century and the publication “Stara Srbija i Arbanasi” (Old Serbia and the Albanians), which sought to prove that Albanian identity is anti-Albanian and not a product of history, and that Albanians are incapable of uniting and creating a state, and are fundamentally without statehood. From that time, and perhaps even earlier, anti-Albanian attitudes have been imposed on Albanians as something inevitable. Let us continue. When Albania declared its independence on 28 November 1912, the news was received in Belgrade with an outburst of anger. Serbia saw the creation of the Albanian state as an obstacle to its access to the Adriatic. The true and recognized Albanians ...

Berisha: A referendum? We’ll see The Democrats’ leader: Technically, the draft is not bad PD headquarters (left) Daan Everts (right) Opposition leader Berisha TIRANA — Berisha is approached about the constitution. A meeting with the constitutional expert? [The text is partly cut off/unclear] “It was a foundational meeting for the state. It was a responsible act of reconciliation that came to us through the constitutional process,” Berisha said yesterday at a press conference, a few hours after meeting with a senior expert from the Venice Commission. Yesterday Berisha was far removed from his usual strident tone, in which he had said that the constitution was merely a government pamphlet that would have no value whatsoever. Meanwhile, Berisha’s new opinion differs considerably from his previous political positions, as he said that the draft-constitution version had no major technical defect, apart from some of its shortcomings.

TIRANA — Berisha is approached about the constitution. A meeting with the constitutional expert? PD headquarters (left) Daan Everts (right) Opposition leader Berisha

20. Are you looking for your success and victory? Here’s more… [a lot of very small, unclear text] Italian visas: Here are new names List of 200 people The Italian visa “Sportello” at GAZETA SHQIPTARE Send your letter to: Rr. Dibrës 370 Tiranë Replies from the Consulate in the pages of “Gazeta Shqiptare” On page 16